International Students

The Systematics and Ecology Laboratory actively encourages and accepts students from the international community who are interested in taxonomic and ecological research work in Southeast Asia. Over the past eight years, the laboratory has trained several students in various aspects of taxonomy and ecology of interesting groups of animals.
We highlight three recent ones:

Mr Robert Kerle

Robert, a German national, is registered in the Department of Life Sciences in the University Tuebingen, Germany, for his Diploma in Biology (equivalent to a MSc) and is a special student here in DBS, being jointly supervised by staff from both institutions. Robert spent about year in Singapore, from September 1997 to July 1998, working on the ecology of the unusual earthworm eel, Chendol keelini (Chaudhuriidae), which is found in freshwater swamps. He has also done related work on a related species, Chaudhuria caudata. Robert started his "career" as an aquarist and his present dissertation allows him to see a wide spectrum of Southeast Asian fishes. Although new to Southeast Asian swamps when he first arrived, he adapted rapidly, becoming an excellent field man, fish, unwelcomed snakes and all!

Mr Cai Yixiong

Mr. Cai Yixiong hails from the People's Republic of China. Formerly with the Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica, before he joined the department for his higher degree in early 1997, he holds the title of Assistant Researcher in Carcinology. He specialises in the systematics and taxonomy of the Atyidae of China. He has published extensively on the taxonomy of freshwater prawns in China, and also on various groups of marine crabs from the Nansha (= Spratly) Islands in the South China Sea. An experienced field worker, he is currently working on the systematics of the freshwater prawn genus Macrobrachium of China, Indo-China, continental Southeast Asia and Peninsular Malaysia for his Masters in Science degree.

Ms Daisy Wowor

Ms. Daisy Wowor holds the concurrent position of curator and collection manager of crustacea in the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Indonesia. She is an experienced worker in the field by virtue of her position and has traveled extensively to many parts of Indonesia for her research. She obtained her Masters of Science in the University of Maryland, USA, studying the ethology of the marine crab Cancer irroratus and C. borealis. Some of the results of her Masters work has already been published. During her career in Indonesia, she has published many papers on the biology of prawns and some on crabs. She is currently pursuing her PhD on the taxonomy of the freshwater prawn genus Macrobrachium of Western Indonesia (started in September 1997). Her candidature and research work in Singapore is sponsored by the Global Environment Facility of the World Bank, as part of its efforts to train skilled manpower for the Bogor Museum.

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